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Collar bomb hoax 'urban terrorism': court

Isabel Hayes

Paul Douglas Peters had the wrong target when he committed an act of "urban terrorism" by putting a hoax collar bomb around the neck of Sydney teenager Madeleine Pulver, a judge has been told.

After years of "privilege and success", Peters, 52, suffered financial difficulty and decided to seek revenge in an extortion attempt that he believed would recoup his losses, Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, told the District Court in Sydney on Wednesday.

But Ms Cunneen said Peters had gone to the wrong house when he intruded on the Pulver family home in Mosman on August 3, 2011 and cornered 18-year-old Madeleine in her bedroom, before placing a fake collar bomb around her neck.

Peters has pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated breaking and entering and detaining with advantage over the incident, which sparked a 10-hour police operation before the device was confirmed as a fake.

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An attached document demanded an unspecified sum of money and said the device would explode if tampered with.

Peters was arrested two weeks later in the home he shared with his ex-wife, Debra Peters, in Kentucky in the US.

The court has heard he claims to have no memory of much of the incident, and psychiatrists say he was suffering from a bipolar disorder at the time.

In her sentencing submissions, Ms Cunneen said Peters travelled from his home in the US to track down the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust, before changing his target.

She said he hung around Mosman for several days and observed a man who lived near the Pulvers whom he recognised through his business dealings in Hong Kong.